Travis Ste�enFounder, Upshare.co

By

User Experience vs. Viral Marketing - Why You'll Always Lose This War,

and How To Win

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If you're worried about sacrificing your user experience too much in favor of viral marketing,

you're already failing.

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As I've begun to write and speak more about viral growth mechanics, one of the surprisingly-common questions that

even seasoned, successful entrepreneurs have asked is actually something seemingly-unrelated…

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…their user experience.

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How much should I be willing to compromise my user experience in favor of viral marketing?

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Most of these people have come across sites in the past that they believe have a high viral factor (which to the layman may simply be

site with a ton of sharing buttons) that coincidentally also have a poor user experience.

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These sites HAVE compromised user experience for a bit of a viral boost - which is where this belief comes from.

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This belief is often crafted by two other beliefs:

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A great user experience has to be very aesthetically pleasing

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This isn't necessarily the case. In fact, sites like Reddit and Amazon have user experiences that are historically

the absolute furthest from aesthetically pleasing.

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In reality, a great user experience is built with behavioral analytics, qualitative feedback and ample testing rather than

artistic design.

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The addition of viral elements decrease the aesthetic appeal of a site

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These people are usually referring to more low-value options like poorly-crafted referral programs, weak viral calls to action, and

more black and gray-hat viral features and hacks which definitely do compromise the user experience.

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However, it doesn't have to be this way.

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The answer I would give you if you asked me this yourself would be "shrug off your preconceived notions of what viral marketing is."

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Great viral marketing does NOT happen IN SPITE OF of your user experience. It ADDS to it.

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...or at least part of it. Consider these simple rules:

RULES

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Visitors become users because they want the value you're offering.

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1.

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Great viral marketing is driven by the inherent desire of your user to unlock MORE of that value in exchange for

sharing or inviting others.

2.

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In other words, it's not a favor they're doing you or some sort of barter system. It's not an obligatory action.

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They actually WANT to share or invite others because of the value they unlock by doing so.

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Starting to make sense? Let's go into a few examples.

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The best viral growth engines are the ones that not only blend the value the user gets from using your site or app and the value the user

gets from passing it on…

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…but that also make it absurdly obvious that this is the case.

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For example, let's look at the popular file storage service, Dropbox:

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Users come to Dropbox because people want a place to store their files.

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Users refer Dropbox to others because they want to share those files with friends.

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Users are more likely to refer others to Dropbox because each time they do, more space is unlocked for their account for free.

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See what I mean?

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Dropbox's viral growth engine works so well because their cloud-based file-sharing value prop is incredibly powerful

and widespread…

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…and users have a strong desire to share those files with others (who then become Dropbox users themselves).

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Dropbox then added an incentive to make users more likely to send more invites on average because they can unlock even MORE of the value they

originally came to Dropbox to get access to.

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In summary: Dropbox's viral marketing campaign was so effective because

users signed up and shared for the exact same reason.

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Their viral marketing campaign actually IMPROVED their user experience.

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Let's take a look at another example with the popular money-transfer app, PayPal:

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Users come to PayPal because they want a quick, secure way of making real money transactions on the web.

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Users refer PayPal to others because transactions are a two-way street, and they want to send money to and receive money from other people.

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Users are more likely to refer others to PayPal because they (at least used to) get a great cash incentive to do so.

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In summary: PayPal spread virally because users signed up to solve one simple, clear problem, and inviting others to the service added value by helping them

solve that problem more easily.

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Again, this viral marketing campaign IMPROVES their user experience.

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(NOTE: in most cases, cash-for-referrals systems are expensive, uncre-ative and easily gamed…

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…but as a money transfer app, this actually makes sense for apps whose value props revolve around money like PayPal's does).

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The point is, viral marketing doesn't work to the degree you want it to if it's obligatory.

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However, this phenomenon is the reason why most founders have those incorrect beliefs about viral marketing.

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In the copycat world we live in, teams will often look to what their competitors or other services are doing in order to decide

on their own strategies.

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Sound familiar? How many times have you looked at a competitor and thought since

they're currently more successful than you are, everything they're doing is superior to what you're doing?

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While competitive analysis is a part of good research, this is an incomplete approach.

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It's this "it's what everyone else is doing" mentality that often holds startups back from making correct decisions.

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(…and yes, I've been a victim of it myself in the past in ventures before Upshare, and often feel compelled to fall

down the same rabbit hole to this day.)

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However, know that this mindset is a dangerous combination of laziness and fear.

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Visitors become users because they want the value you're offering.

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SaleTODAY!

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SaleTODAY!

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1.

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Don't let it govern your decision making.

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Examine the value props in your user experience

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In a nutshell, what value are you providing users? What value would your users get for spreading the

word about you?

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It doesn't HAVE to be something tangible. It can, but it can also be something like:

1.

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A feeling of authority or of being "in the know"1.

1.

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A feeling of being seen as humorous or controversial

2.

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A feeling of satisfaction in helping to solve the problem of another person

3.

1.

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That said, even when you consciously provide strong intrinsic benefits like these…

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…you can also add extrinsic rewards to augment virality (which, if done well, also augment the user experience), like:

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A discount code for your or another product1.

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A free sample or free gift2.

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Points, badges, or status symbols (a blend of intrinsic and extrinsic)

3.

Best

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(NOTE: Upshare provides tools to help you add your own extrinsic rewards to your site - meaning you can leverage

viral incentive marketing without investing heavy time or re-sources into custom built solutions.)

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Using game mechanics to drive viral growth is always a good move IF you're truly adding more value and not just

buying user actions.

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Buying user actions (i.e. zero value, compensated with by ultra-strong incentives) might give you some nice vanity metrics to show investors or brag about in the press…

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…but the users you acquire won't be active, your focus is skewed too heavily towards acquiring users at all costs

rather than delivering value via user experience, and you likely won't be profitable.

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In summary, user experience and viral marketing should NOT be considered two warring factions.

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Instead, viral marketing should enhance your user experience as a seam-less way of unlocking more of the value they came to you for to begin

with - just for spreading your site or service to others.

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What's next?

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Something that's important to remember is that viral marketing does NOT look the same for everyone.

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In fact, it often takes a very different shape for every single site, which often makes things a bit confusing.

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However, I've mapped out 12 different types of viral marketing that, when combined strategically, can work for any site, app,

product or business.

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You can check all 12 of them out here:

http://www.upshare.co/viralhero/types-of-viral-marketing